Harvesting the Promise of Distance Learning: Emerging Trends and Practices

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Harvesting the Promise of Distance
LearningEmerging Trends and Practices

• Ray Schroeder
• Technology-Enhanced Learning
• University of Illinois at Springfield

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Emerging Trends and Practices

• Noble and Worthy Mission
• Bringing learning to the disenfranchised
• Those who have not been served by traditional
  classroom settings
• Interesting (and exciting) times!
• New tools, new techniques, new theories!
• After centuries of sameness (since printing
  press) we now are confronted with a new context
  in higher education

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New Context

• Higher education is far different than just a
  decade ago -- We are no longer alone!
• University of Phoenix now 150,000 online
  students around the globe
• We are no longer a monopoly of private and public
  non-profit institutions
• For-profits and soon international alternatives
• Students have a choice competition is emerging
  in ways never before contemplated
• The student has been granted consumer power
• First trend DIGITAL NATIVES

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Breaking the Division

• Mark Prenskys Digital Natives, Digital
  Immigrants
• Our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an
  outdated language (that of the pre-digital age),
  are struggling to teach a population that speaks
  an entirely new language.
• Natives are used to the instantaneity of
  hypertext, downloaded music, phones in their
  pockets, a library on their laptops, beamed
  conversations and instant messaging. Theyve been
  networked most or all of their lives.

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Digital Natives

• So if Digital Immigrant educators really want to
  reach Digital Natives i.e. all their students
  they will have to change. Its high time for them
  to stop their grousing, and as the Nike motto of
  the Digital Native generation says, Just do it!
  They will succeed in the long run and their
  successes will come that much sooner if their
  administrators support them.
• Who are the Millennial Students?

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Millennial Students

• Millennials Rising The Next Great Generation,
  Neil Howe and William Strauss 7 descriptors
• Special
• Sheltered
• Confident
• Team-Oriented
• Achieving
• Pressured
• Conventional
• They expect Student Centered Learning

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Student Centered

• Student-centeredness is a key aspect
• Rooted in the origins of formal learning
• Recall Platos Socratic Dialogues
• Not sage on the stage
• We are guide by the side
• Challenging, provoking, guiding students to build
  personal knowledge from information
• Students value the constructivist approach to
  teaching and learning
• An active and meaningful learning paradigm
• Learning by reflecting

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Constructivism

• Constructivist pedagogical approach
• Driven in part by the expanding marketplace of
  higher education
• We present information and guide the student in
  applying that information to construct knowledge
  in their own context through higher order
  thinking
• Blooms Taxonomy
• The very technologies and tools that facilitate
  individual student analysis and higher order
  thinking pervade our lives
• Lead to a new learning theory - Connectivism

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Connectivism

• Connectivism a Learning theory for the 21st
  Century by George Siemens
• Created a stir on the Internet
• Knowledge in the 21st is different than the 19th
  century
• No longer held totally within our brains and a
  few books
• Now held in living, expanding networks both
  social and technological
• Learning now means knowledge of how to find
  changing answers in this technologically evolving
  society

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Principles of Connectivism

• Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of
  opinions
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized
  nodes or information sources
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what
  is currently known
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed
  to facilitate continual learning
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas,
  and concepts is a core skill
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the
  intent of all connectivist learning activities.
• Decision-making is in itself a learning process

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Technologies and Techniques

• How do we connect with the digital natives the
  millennial students?
• Time-shifting technologies
• Encourage interaction - engage
• Facilitate individual communication
• Utilize their means of communication digital
• We are told that many cannot easily read cursive
• We are told that many cannot easily read analog
  clocks
• But, their digital communication skills are
  excellent
• Meet them where they are on their turf

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Sampling of New Technologies

• What new trends and practices can be used to
  reach the Millennials in the context of this new
  environment?
• Blogs
• Podcasting and Vodcasting
• Wikis
• RSS
• Gaming simulations

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Blogs

• WeB LOGS BLOGS
• Since 1997
• Reverse chronological order
• Quick and easy way to publish instantly and
  internationally
• Provision for responses
• http//iteslj.org/Techniques/Johnson-Blogs/
• http//grandtextauto.gatech.edu/2004/08/06/teachin
  g-with-blogs/

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Blogs

• How are blogs used in education?
• Faculty members sharing info with students
• Online discussions
• Students in virtual study groups
• Students sharing creative writing with world
• Online journaling
• E-Portfolios
• Anonymous evaluations
• Incredible reach last 24 hours for OLU

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Podcasts

• iPOD broadCAST PODCAST
• Born out of blogs
• Audio blogging using MP3 or MP4 format
• Listened to online or through iTunes
  auto-downloaded to an iPod
• Professor Margaret Maag USF
• http//feeds.feedburner.com/NursingEducation
• Burks Oakley University of Illinois
• http//burkso2.blogspot.com

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Vodcasts

• Video On Demand broadCAST VODCAST
• Video files commonly in blogs that can be played
  on a computer or via a video iPod.
• Some example sites
• http//www.vodcasts.tv/
• http//research.uchicago.edu/highlights/science/in
  dex.shtml

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Pod/Vodcasts

• How are Pod/Vodcasts used in education?
• Lecture delivery
• Those who miss class
• Review of lectures
• Slider-bar for review of points
• Voiced discussion boards
• Providing richer communication
• Student project delivery
• Enabling audio/video multimedia

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Wikis

• Wiki Hawaiian term for quick (wiki wiki buses)
• Online shared space for composition
• Normally, anyone with access can edit
• Wikipedia
• http//www.wikipedia.org/
• Wikispaces
• http//rayschroeder.wikispaces.com/
• http//rayschroeder.wikispaces.com/aacis

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RSS

• Rich Site Summary / Really Simple Syndication
• Online XML files pointing to updates
• http//people.uis.edu/rschr1/onlinelearning/blogge
  r_rss.xml
• Aggregators
• http//newsisfree.com
• Enables instant sharing of resources
• Blogs,Podcasts, Vodcasts, Wikis
• Dynamic pages
• http//people.uis.edu/rschr1/oluinfo.htm

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Gaming - Simulation

• Millennial learners are veterans at digital
  gaming and simulation
• More hours spent with x-box than prior
  generations spent with books
• Comfortable mode of learning
• http//www.insead.fr/CALT/Encyclopedia/Education/A
  dvances/games.html
• http//www.merlot.org/search/ArtifactList.po?keywo
  rdsimulation

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Essential Sources

• Educause has published a free E-Book on the
  topic Educating the Net Generation (July, 2005)
• http//www.educause.edu/EducatingtheNetGeneration/
  5989
• Video of UCF Students on technology
• http//engage.ucf.edu28158/ramgen/ucf/cdws/parlor
  /parlor2.rm

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Essential Sources

• Online Learning Update more than 5,000 postings
  since 2001
• http//people.uis.edu/rschr1/onlinelearning/blogge
  r.html

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Contact Information

• Ray Schroeder, Director
• Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning,
  University of Illinois at Springfield
• schroeder.ray_at_uis.edu
• 217-206-7531